The Farther Shore - Christie Golden [65]
“Get me Grady,” she ordered. “Now.”
Montgomery’s heart sank a little further as he read the information on the screen. No further progress on a cure, and there were fourteen more new cases. Fourteen. And those were the ones they’d found. His people assured him that they were on top of it. The “Xanarian [192] flu” story was holding, and the world was so technologically advanced that there were only a very few pockets left where people couldn’t contact Starfleet immediately if someone suffered an “outbreak.”
Montgomery didn’t like anything slipping through the cracks. People had died in the Dominion War over qualifiers like “only a very few” and “highly likely” and words like that. For the first time, he gave himself permission to think that they might not succeed.
His door chimed. “Come,” he called. “Red” Grady stuck his head in.
“Am I disturbing you, sir?”
“Of course you are, but come in anyway.”
Red knew him well enough to look past the gruffness. He stepped inside. Montgomery regarded him and didn’t like the look of concern on the man’s freckled face.
“What now?” he asked wearily.
Red didn’t answer at once. He spread his hands and opened and closed his mouth before finally saying, “Sir, I hardly know where to begin. My sources could be wrong, but—”
“But what?”
“We need to question Seven and Icheb. With the Interrogator.”
Montgomery frowned. The Interrogator was something he regarded as a necessary evil. He hated dragging people before the man and his Vulcan companion, but Starfleet regulations authorized it and he had felt compelled to subject Seven of Nine to the man’s “ministrations.”
“Why?”
“I think there may be some kind of plot afoot [193] involving them. We won’t know the nature of it until we interrogate them.”
“They’re in stasis now and Kaz tells me it’s not a good idea to get them out,” Montgomery replied. “They’re not hurting anyone where they are.”
“Sir, you saw the report, same as I did. Fourteen more. And every day that passes without us being able to crack this thing brings us closer to the moment when healthy adults will become Borg. If Seven and Icheb really do know something—”
“Dammit, all right. Let’s go and let Kaz yell at us and drag the Borg in front of the Interrogator.”
As they left the room, Montgomery thought he saw a smirk flit across Red Grady’s face. He turned to look at the other man sharply, but saw nothing but concern. He must be imagining things. God knew he hadn’t been getting enough sleep. He was starting to see conspiracies everywhere.
Kaz turned around and greeted them pleasantly. Montgomery was surprised. Usually it seemed like Kaz had a chip on his shoulder when it came to Seven and Icheb. Maybe agreeing to put them in stasis had mollified the doctor a bit. Well, he was about to get unmollified.
“We’re going to have to take Seven and Icheb in for more questioning,” he said, and braced himself for Kaz’s response.
“Really?” Kaz frowned. “I dislike interrupting the stasis field, especially as they are so sleep-deprived. Is it really necessary?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Grady said. “You can put them back under as soon as we’re done.”
[194] “Very well,” said Kaz, shocking Montgomery. Kaz knew, of course, that Montgomery would have the final say, but usually the Trill doctor would at least have given him a good tongue-lashing. But Kaz hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep recently either. Maybe he was just tired of arguing.
“Can you bring the questioners in here? I’d like to keep them in sickbay.”
“Impossible,” Montgomery said flatly.
“That’s really not a good idea,” the doctor stammered, his eyes darting about.
Montgomery looked at him intently. What was going on? “Release them, please, Dr. Kaz. No more arguments.”
Kaz seemed about to plead once more, then apparently thought better of it after taking a look at Montgomery’s glowering visage. He went to the controls and deactivated the stasis field.
Slowly, Icheb and Seven opened their eyes. Kaz bent over them and said with a strange deliberation, “Admiral Montgomery needs you to accompany